By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

The prosecution said on Friday it has decided not to bring any charges against President Roh Moo-hyun and former opposition leader Lee Hoi-chang over the collection of illegal campaign funds during the 2002 presidential election.

Announcing the outcome of its eight-month-long investigation into illegal corporate donations, the prosecution said they couldn’t find any evidence suggesting Roh or Lee were directly involved in the fundraising.

``We have no evidence yet to support the allegations that Roh played a role in the collection of campaign funds by his aides,’’ Ahn Dai-hee, a prosecutor who has led the fund investigation, told reporters in a briefing. ``In Lee’s case, we have a testimony from a lawmaker that he gave a secret order to keep part of the bonds from Samsung, but this is not enough for us to bring charges against him.’’

Aides to former opposition leader Lee expressed discontent with the announcement, saying the investigation into fundraising irregularities during the 2002 presidential race had been unfair.

Ahn said the prosecution has also decided not to punish Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, adding they have no evidence that the chairman played a role in Samsung’s provision of illegal funds. Instead, Samsung vice chairman Lee Hak-soo will be indicted for his role in the group’s donations of 40 billion won in bonds to political parties in 2002.

Since the fund investigation was launched in August of last year following the fund scandal involving SK Group, about 30 politicians, including several political heavyweights, have been arrested and put on trial for money they allegedly took from Samsung and other conglomerates. In the case of businessmen, prosecutors have taken a lenient approach, indicting most of them without physical detention to have them continue their jobs.

Prosecutors disclosed that the opposition Grand National Party collected 82.3 billion won and Roh’s election camp amassed 12 billion won from businesses during the presidential campaign.

Despite their strenuous efforts to disclose the ins and outs of the illegal campaign funds, the decision to have Roh and Lee go scot-free in the scandal may put the prosecution under public criticism.

In March, the prosecution pledged to focus the remaining inquiry onto revealing whether Roh and Lee pulled strings in the fundraising. The fund investigation opened a new front when an inquiry by an independent counsel was launched to find facts to support allegations involving Lee Kwang-jae, Choi Do-sul and Yang Kil-seung, Roh’s aides. But the inquiry ended with few new findings, concluding most of the bribery suspicions raised against Roh were groundless.

The prosecution claimed in April Lee Hoi-chang took 300 million won from a confidant before he left for the United States last year following his presidential election defeat.

But the prosecution eventually failed to find evidence, leaving the two political rivals out of judicial judgment.

Ahn also said the prosecution will make further efforts to reveal details of illegal funds collected from major conglomerates in 2002, continuing the investigation into the chiefs of 270 regional chapters of both the ruling and opposition parties.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr